Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 22:28:29 -0400 (EDT) From: mkb4@Cornell.edu (Matthew Belmonte) To: cty-boston@mattababy.dyn.ml.org (CTY Boston) Subject: today's meeting [I am cc-ing this mail to some people who expressed interest in the group but who are not on the mailing list. Future mailings will go only to the mailing list. To subscribe to the mailing list, send "subscribe cty-boston YourFirstName YourSurname" to ListServ@mattababy.dyn.ml.org.] A brief summary of this evening's meeting: There was a lot of interest in social gatherings. If you're doing something, or if your dorm or ILG is having a party, or whatever, feel free to send an announcement to this mailing list. Once we have more members maybe someone will want to volunteer to handle the planning of social events organised just for us. Several people mentioned interest in teaching or mentoring. Once we have student organisation status, we'll be able to reserve classrooms and other facilities. One option for this might be to offer free, weekend classes for local students who've qualified for CTY. These could be one-time seminars or ongoing courses. Someone pointed out that the Educational Studies Group at MIT does high school outreach and may be a resource or collaborator for us. Several people were interested in helping out with some sort of math/cs topic. It would be good to have a person who's willing to coordinate everyone who's interested in teaching a class or a seminar, and who'd be willing to contact Baltimore in order to obtain the names and addresses of local CTY qualifiers who might be interested in being our students. Some people mentioned that having more communication with Baltimore would be good. There are some people who want to apply for jobs with CTY, and some who want to be able to provide feedback and input on CTY's policy directions. Igor Teper pointed out that with so many long-term teachers having left recently, there's a lack of continuity in the teaching style and teaching expertise in many of the courses, and that something might be done to recognise and address this problem. (If anyone wants to volunteer to pursue the creation of such a communications channel, I can tell you whom to contact in Baltimore. This would be a great thing to do - but I can't do it myself because I have already brought a lot of issues to Baltimore and therefore any overture I might make may be viewed as having some hidden agenda. So *please* consider volunteering for this.) We talked about becoming recognised as a student organisation at MIT and Harvard. Brendan Connell volunteered to look into this at Harvard. Anna Benefiel volunteered to look into it at MIT. Jennifer Berk pointed out that at least in the case of MIT, becoming a student organisation requires that a constitution be submitted. She volunteered to look into what should go into the constitution. (Jennifer, once you have an idea of what we need in this document - name, purpose, &c. - please feel free to use this mailing list for discussion. Due to scheduling conflicts and to various people being hosed at various times, we should probably aim to do a lot of this by email.) Jennifer and Anna will be in touch with each other about all this. We need to advertise our existence to all the alumni who are here in Cambridge. Melissa Hao volunteered to look into this, and will report back to the group at the next meeting. Everyone should be on the lookout for fellow alumni, in person and on the net, and should mention the group to them. We agreed to meet again, same time, same place, two weeks from today. (That's Monday 5 October, at 5pm on Kresge Oval at MIT, or in the second-floor lounge in the Stratton student centre if it's raining or cold.) I would like to find someone other than me to take notes at this upcoming meeting and to type up the minutes and send them to this mailing list. I'd also like to find someone to facilitate (i.e. to chair) the meeting. Again, this is because I have many issues with Baltimore and therefore if we are to be taken seriously by Baltimore we need people more impartial than I to be directing things. Volunteering to be secretary or facilitator for the next meeting does not involve any extended commitment; it would be for one meeting only. At the end of the meeting, you would be responsible for finding someone else to take up the task for the next meeting.